


Cohabitable Species

by Duststorm



Category: Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens (2015)
Genre: M/M, Soft Kylux, millicent: the origin story
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-08-14
Updated: 2016-08-14
Packaged: 2018-08-08 17:09:57
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,670
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7766275
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Duststorm/pseuds/Duststorm
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Kylo took a deep breath, “Big cities tend to attract a lot of cohabitable species-”<br/>“Honestly, Ren-”<br/>“Like cats,” Kylo pressed, “a lot of stray cats. You see them all over. Can’t help running into them.”</p>
<p> </p>
<p>In which Kylo finds something on a mission, and brings it home.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Cohabitable Species

**Author's Note:**

  * For [White_Rainbow](https://archiveofourown.org/users/White_Rainbow/gifts).



> This is for my wonderful friend, White_Rainbow. It's your birthday, and I wrote my first fic, just for you <3
> 
> (You can find me on tumblr @ softkylux :D )

Every day was, in varying degrees, stressful for Hux. It came with the job. And he was well equipped to handle it. He had to be, so he was. This day had been one of the more unpleasant ones, where he had handled a dozen mini emergencies that no one would remember or thank him for, but which could have easily blown up out of control if handled poorly.

He was tired, he was slowly working down from his stress build up, and he was in no mood to deal with anything else. Least of all antics from Kylo Ren. Which meant, of course, that he was going to have to.

Hux had given him the code to his quarters, of course. But in the four months of their affair Kylo had never presumed to let himself in uninvited. Hux had assumed it an unspoken rule, like so many of the rules of their engagement. But, Hux found, the sight of Kylo sitting on his bed, helmetless and fidgeting with something that had to be nerves, was enough to quell his initial rush of indignation.

Hux continued into the room as if nothing was unusual, feeling Kylo’s nervous energy on him. He removed his greatcoat slower than he needed to, folding it neatly over the back of a chair before he turned to give the Knight his attention.

“Good evening, Ren,” he said, raising an eyebrow at him.

“Good evening, General,” Kylo said, and it was somehow still a surprise to hear the voice without the vocoder, rich and deep without the static. And strained with something, in this case. 

Hux took off his gloves, placing them on the table. Kylo’s eyes trained onto the movement. This was generally as far as their foreplay got, with Kylo’s impatience and Hux’s practicality. But tonight, all Kylo did was swallow, and look back to the seam he was picking at on his tunic. 

Hux frowned. Kylo wasn’t looking at him, but his throat would work occasionally, like he was trying to say something and failing.

“Not that I’m not happy to see you,” Hux said, finally, “But what you’re doing here?”.

Kylo left his shirt alone and let his hands drift, restlessly, into his own lap. “I just got back from my mission,” he said. Looked like he was going to say something else. Didn’t.

“Yes, I saw the log of your shuttle’s return.” Hux had news of Kylo’s shuttle set to send him a sound alert on his datapad, actually, but Kylo didn’t need to know that.

“It was to an inhabited planet, one with a big city.” 

“Yes, Ren, I do read your mission dossiers, I even write a fair amount of them myself. Are you going somewhere with this?”.

Kylo took a deep breath, “Big cities tend to attract a lot of cohabitable species-”

“Honestly, Ren-”

“Like cats,” Kylo pressed, “a lot of stray cats. You see them all over. Can’t help running into them.” Kylo paused, and Hux was ready to start shaking him or kick him out, when Kylo said, quickly, “Please don’t be mad.” Which was, Hux imagined, exactly the sort of thing Kylo would say before he made him very, very angry.

“What did you do?”

“You said- you mentioned. Once. That you had a cat when you were a child.”

“I have no memory of this, and I fail to see how this is relevant-”

“You were drunk. Two months ago? When you invited me over for a drink after the Supreme Leader approved your final plans for Starkiller, and we-”

“Were very drunk and did things I would like to leave as foggy as they are in my memory, thank you. Though I did not realize I was drunk enough to start talking about my childhood.”

Kylo shrugged, a little, not really looking at him again. “You didn’t say much about it. But you mentioned a cat, a little ginger kitten that you weren’t allowed to keep, that you missed for years afterwards.”

A kitten with wild, tangled hair that wasn’t the same color as his mother’s but reminded him of her anyways. A kitten who his father had looked at with that same eyes-cold, teeth-clenched disgust he had looked at Armitage with, the first time he saw him. 

Hux feels his lip curl into a sneer. “I knew getting drunk around you was a bad idea, but you’re honestly reducing yourself to mocking me about my childhood?”

“No,” Kylo said, quickly, “No, that’s not- I didn’t mean it like that. I meant it like… I was struck, by the story. By how it seemed to bother you, even now. I didn’t realize you could be… bothered, like that.”

“Yes, well,” Hux said, disgusted with himself, and with Kylo, for bringing it up. “We all have our weaknesses. Are you quite finished pointing out mine? I’d like to get to bed.”

Hux made to move forward to it, and Kylo shot out his arms in front of him “Wait-”

But Kylo was sitting on the other end of the bed, and Hux did not take well to being told what to do, especially by him, so he made the few steps swiftly, and sat himself firmly on the mattress. This jostled it, and there came a perplexing noise from the sheets, like an animal cry. Hux turned to see a lump wiggle desperately out from under the covers and off the bed in a blur of orange. 

Hux blinked as Kylo launched himself off the bed and out the bedroom door after it. Hux got up and followed him, as it seemed the only thing to do. When he peered around the doorway, he found himself watching the Masters of the Knights of Ren on his hands and knees looking under his couch, making uncertain cooing and placating noises into it while muffled hissing came back.

“Did you smuggle a cat onto the flagship of the First Order,” Hux asked, at a loss. 

Kylo didn’t turn back to look at him, “Yes,” he said.

“Why?”

“She reminded me of you,” Kylo said, to the sofa. 

Hux watched him for a solid minute while the cogs in his brain snagged uselessly against each other. Then he took a breath. Then he took a step. And another. Then he was kneeling next to Kylo, who looked startled when Hux swatted lightly at his arm. “Move,” he said, “You’re scaring her.”

Kylo shuffled back awkwardly, and it was Hux’s turn to put his face into the carpet to see under the couch. The cat in question was huddled back, her fur still a little poofy down her spine from the surprise. She was orange, probably, her coat a tangled, mangy mess. She hissed at Hux, wiggling herself back a little more, showing him her teeth.

Hux sat back up and stared at Kylo.

“A cat,” he said again, incredulous.

Kylo frowned, “You like cats.”

“How did you even get her in here? She seems awfully touchy.”

“Not easily,” Kylo muttered, offering his arms up just slightly, and from this close Hux could see the scratches and tears in the material.

That was what did it. After a stressful, frustrating day, the sight of Kylo Ren, arms torn up and bested by a cat, was the funniest thing Hux had seen in recent memory. He let out a snort, which made his throat bubble quickly into helpless laughter. Kylo’s mouth fell slightly open, stunned, and Hux just laughed more, wrapping his arms around his own middle and shaking a little. 

“Kriff,” he said, wiping his eye and trying not to giggle. “ _ Kriff. _ ” He stood up then, shaking his head a little and working through the rest of his fit. Kylo watched him, dumbfounded, as Hux walked to the kitchenette and opened a cabinet. 

“How did you even get her on the ship to begin with?” Hux asked, peering inside, trying to stifle his laughter.

“Uh,” Kylo said, “I wrapped her in my cloak? Until she escaped, then I mostly just held on until we got to your room.”

“Do you know how many protocols you’re breaking by bringing her here?” Hux asked, rummaging inside. “And did you see the state of her? I’m sure she’s carrying every disease and parasite from that backwater planet you picked her up on.” Hux pulled a can out and shut the cabinet.

“I’ll giver her a bath,” Kylo said, and Hux snorted again, walking back over.

“Yes, I’m sure that’ll go over swimmingly. Here’s to hoping there’s some flesh still left attached to your body afterwards.”

“You don’t sound mad. Why aren’t you mad?” 

Hux sighed, sitting down next to Kylo again. He popped open the can, crinkling his nose at the smell of fish, and set it down in front of the couch. 

“I should be, shouldn’t I?” he said, looking at Kylo thoughtfully. “Maybe it’s the shock. Give it a few more minutes, and I’ll get back to you about it.”

Kylo opened his mouth to say something, and then stopped, eyes darting to the little nose and whiskers poking themselves out from under the couch. They watched as her face poked out, cautiously. Hux made little tuts and soft noises at her, and she emerged, slowly, creeping towards the can of fish. When she got to it, she went at it like the half-starved thing she must be, chewing noisily.

“So, what?” Hux said quietly, watching her with something that felt disastrously like fondness, “You find her in an alley, eating out of the garbage, and you what? Fall in love with her?”

“She was backed into a corner by another scavenger species, I didn’t recognize which one. Some sort of rodent? And she was outnumbered, hissing and spitting, and she looked… fierce, wild-eyed and dangerous despite her size. She got a few good hits in before they started to overwhelm her and I chased them off. She lost consciousness, and I didn’t think she’d survive the trip here, but. I couldn’t leave her.”

Hux raised both of his eyebrows at this, “Mercy?”

“I liked her spirit,” Kylo said, defensive. Hux laughed again, and Kylo looked a little startled at the noise.

“She’s certainly got that,” Hux said. He reached out a careful hand to the cat, who flinched back at the movement, ears flattening. Hux took his hand back before she decided that hissing or swiping was going to be necessary. She continued to eye him, ears pinned to her head, the tangled fur on her back threatening to bristle back up. 

“I’ll take her, Hux,” Kylo said, “This was stupid. I’ll get rid of her.”

“You’ll do nothing of the sort,” Hux said, sharper than he intended. The cat tensed a little at the noise. Kylo blinked at him.

“Once again, you’ve made a mess, and I’m left to clean it up.”

“I just said that I’d-”

“She’s already here, she might as well stay.”

Hux wondered if he had perhaps broken Kylo’s face, because it had been stuck somewhere around “completely at a loss” for a good chunk of the conversation now. “You don’t… you’re going to keep her?”

“I keep you around, maybe she’ll prove to be more useful.”

“Hux,” Kylo said, “she’s  _ terrible _ .”

Hux frowned. “She’s scared, and she’s obviously been abused. She’s never had a chance to be anything else but this. But she’s got promise. You’ll see.” Which sounded a little more ridiculous out loud than it had in his head.

Kylo gave him a strange, searching look. He looked over at the cat, who was still deciding if the situation warranted poofing up more, then back to Hux. 

“So you’re keeping her,” he said, sounding like he needed to say it aloud to believe it.

“I’ve said so already, but yes. I’m keeping the terrible feral thing you smuggled onto my ship.” Hux stood up, which sent the creature in question bolting back under the couch. “And you’re going to help me clean her up, once she gets comfortable enough for it. Gently, or we’ll have to work up her trust all over again.” He said, picking up his datapad from where he left it on the table. 

“You think you can get her to trust you in the first place?”

“I am many things, Kylo, but I am not the sort of man who backs down from a challenge,” he looked down at him, still sitting on the floor. “I am, however, the sort of man who suddenly very seriously needs a bio waste disposal system usable by a small animal.”

Kylo got up, finally, but just sort of stood there, looking down at the couch.

“That was a suggestion for you to do something about it,” Hux said, “And I would also suggest you figure it out quickly. If she pees on anything, the smell is never going to come out.”

“Alright,” Kylo said, without any bite or sarcasm, which was a surprise. “Do you want me to see if requisitions has anything else useful for her?”

Hux narrowed his eyes at him, but he sounded perfectly sincere. “More food. I think everything else will have to be picked up planetside. I’ll research it, and give you a list.”

Kylo had apparently recovered from his shock enough to smirk, “A cat list? While I’m out on an important mission from the Supreme Leader?”

“You found time to fight off rats for her, I think you can handle a shopping list.” Hux was mentally shifting around his morning routine and the lunch break he seldom took into a feeding schedule, as he opened up the third tab on his datapad about feline nutrition. 

“Hux?”

Hux frowned up at him, still lingering by his couch. “You’re still here?”

“I’m glad you like her.”

“I’m glad you saw a half-dead, hissing, spitting thing and thought of me.”

Kylo smirked again, “It’s like you two were made for each other.”

“I am going to put her in your quarters so she can pee on your robes if you don’t go figure out a waste system.”

Kylo kept the smirk on the way out, and Hux wanted to feel annoyed with it, but found he was more interested in the study on feline behavior he had just pulled up.

He sank into his armchair, and the next time he looked up from his datapad was when he heard a soft shuffling. The cat was back out from under the couch, nosing at the now-empty fish can, as if moving it was going to produce more food.

He tutted at her, and she eyed him warily, ears back.

“It’s alright, dear thing,” he said to her, like he had to the kitten he had found all those years ago, “I’ve got you. Nobody’s going to hurt you anymore.”

She looked thoroughly unimpressed with the sentiment, and slunk her way back under the couch. Hux got up and got her another can of fish, leaving it a little further away from the couch this time.

His datapad chimed with a message from Kylo, who was asking about different kinds of canned food, and if cats would benefit from diet variety.

Hux smiled, and it was one of those rare, real smiles that didn’t twist and sneer at the end, but that softened and reached his eyes. The smile faded, quickly, his face unused to the shape, but the feeling of it stayed, slight but warm in his chest. It was the same feeling he had felt as a child, with a meowing orange thing wrapped in a towel in his arms. That small swell of responsibility, brand new at the time, overwhelmed with the irresistible idea that something needed him, wholly and unashamed, and that he wanted to be needed.

He sent Kylo back a list of appropriate food, and set back into his research, glancing up occasionally to catch the growing familiar sight of pink nose and whiskers poking out from under the couch. 


End file.
